When Knight was interviewed he admitted seeking out adult pornography on the internet but denied he had an interest in children.

Knight, 40, of Troughton Walk in South Witham, pleaded guilty to four charges of possession of indecent photographs on April 13, 2011, and a further charge of possessing 63 extreme pornographic images. He also admitted 10 charges of making an indecent image of a child on dates between December 13, 2009, and February 28, 2011.

Judge Sean Morris placed Knight on the sex offenders’ register for 10 years and told him: “This is not a victimless crime. Far from it.

“Where there is a desire to see more and more that desire has to be fed by somebody somewhere. It involves some little girl who is going to be sexually abused in order to gratify those who like watching such things. This material generates that sort of abuse.”

Jonathon Dee, defending, said Knight resigned from the RAF following his arrest and has moved back to live with his parents in South Witham.

He said: “He is consumed with shame. He would never have come before the court had the internet not been invented. It is the anonymity of the internet that allowed him to be in this position.

“The vast majority of what he was looking at was perfectly legal. It would appear there has been a progression into more and more extreme material.